Growing Up with a City

Book excerpt: Louise de Koven Bowen grew up in a Chicago caught between frontier and urbanity—a young city struggling to wipe the mud from its boots. Born into privilege and comfort, she demonstrated from an early age an extraordinary sense of social responsibility and alertness to how she could improve the circumstances of those around her. Smart, savvy, and bracingly candid, Growing Up with a City offers a rare portrait of Chicago and its growing pains from a woman’s perspective. More than a record of her accomplishments, Bowen’s memoir is a disarmingly witty narrative of an enthusiastic, generous, and perpetually optimistic benefactor—with herself often the target of her own wry humor. Invigorating and endearing, her story lets us see how women made a difference in Chicago. “A charming record of [Bowen’s] contributions to building 19th and 20th century Chicago... [Bowen] had a taste for stirring things up, a strong social conscience, seemingly unlimited energy and formidable administrative talent.”—Chicago Sun-Times-Print ed.